


it's quiet uptown.

by littletoes101



Series: Survivors [6]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: M/M, Survivors, everyone lives au, survivors au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2019-11-07 08:05:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17956766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littletoes101/pseuds/littletoes101
Summary: forgiveness // can you imagine?mondo oowada wakes up. part of the survivors au.





	1. awake and alive

Someone’s holding his hand.

That’s the first thing Mondo registers when his blue-violet eyes flutter open for the first time in… how long has it been? Officially he’s been in a coma for six months, so he hears later. But he’s been in the game -- in the simulation -- for much longer.

But he doesn’t think about that at the moment. For right now he’s just thinking about how long and dark his hair’s gotten with him being unable to style or dye it for some time. He’s wondering where his beloved jacket is, because he doesn’t feel its familiar weight around his shoulders. He’s thinking about how Goddamn hungry and thirsty he is right now.

Most importantly, _who the hell is holding his hand?_

Mondo tilts his head to the left, and he’s pretty sure his heart stops for at least ten seconds before starting up again. There’s no mistaking that figure, leaning back in his wheelchair with the back of his head leaning against the wall, strands of jet black hair falling over his closed eyes.

“Daiya?” Mondo finally croaks out when he can speak. His brother shifts only a little, but obviously isn’t fully roused. “Daiya, hey, what the hell -- you’re _alive_?”

He’s still not quite gotten the pre-game memories back yet, so Mondo’s not up to speed on the full story. Junko completely scrambled his memories when she put them under in the first place, so it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not. The last thing he can really remember is spinning round and round, like some kind of demented dance, going faster and faster and faster --

Mondo doesn’t realize he’s about to throw up until Daiya’s pushed a trash can into his lap and sat him up so he doesn’t choke, now wide awake. The younger of the two leans over the trash can and vomits, mostly saliva and bile because he hasn’t actually eaten anything in months thanks to being fed intravenously.

Daiya’s hands rub at the tight muscles in Mondo’s back, gentle as a mother cat grooming her kittens. He slowly moves them up to his shoulders, and then rests one hand on Mondo’s head, stroking his hair as he calms him. Even so, Mondo can feel the shake in his brother’s hands as he tries so desperately hard not to lose it.

“Hey, kid,” Daiya barely whispers when Mondo’s through. “I thought I’d lost you there for a second.”

“ _You_ thought you’d lost _me_?” Mondo asks incredulously. His voice is hoarse, coarse and rough too. “I watched you die, Daiya.”

“You _thought_ you watched me die,” Daiya corrects him. “Enoshima made sure of that. She didn’t think it was…” He pauses, disgust lacing his voice, “... _despairing_ enough to make me a cripple in your mind, that’s all.”

Mondo’s head spins as he rests it against the pillows of the hospital bed. That must be where they are, because it smells too sterile to be home and the walls are too white. Plus, there’s an IV sticking out of his arm. That’s a pretty big sign that he’s anywhere but home.

“...so it was fake?” Mondo finally finds the voice to say. “Enoshima just… made us think we were killin’ each other?”

Daiya nods. “Yeah. She had you guys all hooked up to this damn… machine, thing… it showed us what was goin’ on. We couldn’t take you out of it ‘till the “survivors” woke up.” The trembling returns to Daiya’s frame. “It was fucking sick.”

Mondo’s breath quickens when he realizes what that has to mean. “So you -- ya’ saw me -- saw me kill h-her,” he says, feeling his chest tighten. “Saw me kill a poor kid ‘cause she was stronger than me. ‘Cause I couldn’t fucking stand it --”

All of a sudden, Daiya’s wrapped an arm around Mondo’s shoulders and put his chin on his head, resting his brother’s cheek against his chest effectively. “Shut up,” he says. “I’m not mad at you for that. I don’t give a fuck. It wasn’t your fault, it was Enoshima’s, and fuck anybody who says otherwise.” He’s shaking _hard_ now, and Mondo feels the chill of tears that aren’t his own drip down his neck.

Mondo wails, because there’s no other name for the sound that comes from his throat as he puts his arms around his brother, feeling him shake and cry under his fingers. Daiya doesn’t cry, he just doesn’t. But it looks like this is the exception.

Mondo is his only exception.


	2. i never liked the quiet before.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i take the children to church on sunday  
> the sign of the cross at the door  
> and i pray  
> that never used to happen before

When they’ve both finally calmed down, and Mondo’s downed a few glasses of water along with washing his face to remove any evidence that he’d ever been crying, he feels well enough to ask his brother about what happened while he was asleep.

Daiya explains that the Future Foundation has mostly been taking care of all of this. The survivors work for the Foundation now, though they’re still new and clumsy at it. Makoto’s trying his best, because of course he is. Toko mainly follows Byakuya’s lead, but she’s started to stray more now that they’ve managed to get a hold of Makoto’s little sister, Komaru (Mondo’s glad for that. From what little memories he’s started to regain from before the Killing Game, he and Toko were friends, and frankly, Byakuya doesn’t deserve her). Yasuhiro is turning out to be a bigger help than expected, and Hina is probably doing the best with her bright attitude. Kyoko is… still Kyoko. Avoiding her dad like the plague (Mondo can’t blame her).

“What about Taka?” Mondo asks in the middle of another sip of water. They aren’t letting him eat solids just yet. “Taka made it out too, right?”

Daiya goes rigid, and Mondo doesn’t know much, but he does know that’s not a good sign. “He, uh… he didn’t kill anyone, if that’s what you’re askin’.”

“Daiya,” Mondo says, a hint of a warning in his tone. “That ain’t what I asked an’ you know it.”

He pauses again. “Okay, well, he didn’t kill anyone, but…”

“Daiya,” Mondo repeats. “ _Taka made it out too, right?_ ”

For a moment, Daiya doesn’t say anything. He lifts his head finally, looks at Mondo -- in his eyes, that’s how he knows he’s serious -- and shakes his head. “No. He didn’t.”

For a moment, Mondo’s completely still and silent. Then, he bites out through gritted teeth: “Who. Which son of a bitch fucking did it?”

“Mondo --”

“Which fucking asshole did it, who put their hands on _my_  best friend?!”

“Mondo, quit, there’s nothin’ you can do,” Daiya hisses. There’s more than a hint of a warning in his voice. “And I ain’t gonna tell ya’, so stop askin’.”

“Why?” Mondo’s voice raises in pitch and intensity. “Cause you know I’d bash their fuckin’ skull in? ‘Cause they’d fuckin’ deserve it, for _killing_  the man I lo--” And there he cuts himself off, mouth half-open while hot tears stream down his face again. He looks away, because he’s not sure he can watch Daiya react to what he almost just said, and he needs to think about it himself.

Was that true, or was that just another outburst? Was he…

Was he really in _love_  with Kiyotaka Ishimaru? His best friend?

From beside him, Daiya sighs. “Look, Mondo, it’s okay. I get it. If somebody’d killed you -- well, y’know what I mean -- I dunno what I would’ve done. After all, ‘s my job to take care of you.” He gives a watery, bitter smile. “I failed that too, though. By lettin’ you get into this mess in the first place.”

Putting away his feelings for the moment, Mondo looks over at Daiya again. He looks tired, like he’s aged ten years in only ten minutes, and now Mondo reaches out to take his hand.

“You didn’t fail,” Mondo says quietly. “I… I didn’t _haf’ta_  kill her.” He still can’t bring himself to say Chihiro’s name. He doesn’t feel worthy yet. “Or… him, I dunno, if…”

“Her,” Daiya finally says. “I’m not gonna tell ya’ the whole story, ‘cause that’s somethin’ she’s gotta tell ya’ herself. But she’s a girl.”

“Alright.” Mondo’s long had his own crisis concerning gender, which is why he finds it so ironic that he’d essentially kill someone on the opposite side of the spectrum from him. But, then again, it’s not like he _intended_  to kill her, or even went into the situation with the slightest hint that it’d end in Chihiro’s death, however temporary it ended up being. It’s not like he killed her out of some dumb “trans panic” type thing. He’s… almost kind of glad she’s figured herself out. “She hates me, doesn’t she?”

“Don’t think so,” Daiya shakes his head. “It’s kinda up to her to tell ya’, but I really don’t think she hates ya’, kid. Hell, I’d be surprised if she’s got it in her to hate anybody.”

Mondo feels like that should be reassuring, but it just isn’t.


End file.
